Almost all coffees work well on the French press, but we recommend the lighter roasted ones to prevent getting the bitter roasty flavours that you get from the darker roasted coffees like our espresso blend. Following some very simple techniques, we can hopefully help you to produce a consistently good cup of coffee. So here goes:

1. Pre-heat your French press, by pouring hot water into it.

2. The rule of thumb is 60 – 70 grams per 1 litre of water. The dose will vary according to your taste, the grind particle size and the coffee used. For a filter ground coffee or slightly coarser we recommend a dose closer to 60 grams.

3. Using some scales, measure your coffee and then grind on a coarse even grind.

4. Again using your scales, place the French press with ground coffee on the scales, and measure 1 litre(962 grams at seal level) of boiling water. It is important to ensure all the ground coffee is wet. A good way to do this is to pour half of the water first, then stir a little, then pour the rest of the water. Do not put the lid / plunger on top until after step 6.

5. Brew time varies between 4 and 5 minutes depending on the coffee and grind.

6. Very close to when the brew time has expired, using a spoon, gently push all the ground coffee so it falls to the bottom of the French press. Then remove the the pale floating remains/foam – this results in a cleaner tasting cup.

7. Then plunge away, it should be nice and easy to press down.

8. Pour immediately, or dispense to a thermos – leaving it in the French press will result in an over extracted bitter coffee.

9. Enjoy!

You can watch a nice little video by 2007 world barista champion James Hoffman and Square Mile Coffee Roasters here.